It’s not surprising to me that during harder economic times people tend to look for bargains when they buy goods and services. It just makes sense. In fact, it should be axiomatic that we always look for the best deal…it’s just good stewardship of our resources. But, as experience tells us, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is – right? Times like this should focus our efforts on determination of the best value, not the best price. I mean, the Maytag washing machine that my parent’s bought 25 years ago still works, while we have been through 2 washer “deals” in just the past 8 years. Who really got the best deal? (Maybe our parents actually do know something, huh?!) And inherent in the definition of value is not only the actual lifetime cost of the item, but the qualitative aspects as well. Like, the actual performance of the product or service. Like its ease of use. Like the service after the sale. I see more and more (particularly government…) “Invitations to Bid” on projects, where the absolutely ONLY factor they are considering for their buying decision is the lowest price. What a terrible, short-term benchmark to base a decision on. There seems to be a general disconnect from the product or service end-users and the folks signing the purchase order. Maybe the real answer is that we don’t expect quality anymore. Perhaps this is a result of living in an “Priceline” world. (Is that why the domestic air travel experience is so horid today?) Or maybe it’s a result of living in a Twitter-Focused, Headline-Selling culture that bombards us continually and where depth of research is replaced by 20 second sound-bites…